Synergy Thermal Foils

The U.S. housing market has continued to strengthen throughout this year and October 2016 continued the trend with notable gains in building permits, housing starts and housing completions according to information released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Single-family building permits were at a rate of 762,000, a 2.7% above the revised September figure of 742,000. Single family housing starts also saw notable gains with an increase in 10.7% above the revised September rate. Single-family housing completion sin October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 749,000, this is a 3.9% increase above the previous month.

Privately-owned housing building permits had a small increase of 0.3% from September, however a 4.6% increase over October 2015. Housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.323 million, a 25.5% increase above September and a 23.3 percent increase over the same month in 2015. Housing completions grew 5.5% over the September rate of 1 million.

With the year quickly coming to an end, STF has decided to top off the year end  with yet another new design: Cherry Hill. This beautiful wood grain matches Arauco (Flakeboard) Cherry Hill Plank. This impeccable design will leave your customers asking for more! This structure is one of the most popular cherry designs, it is also offered in two additional colors: Lewis Cherry and Clark Cherry. Lewis Cherry matches Uniboard’s Choco Cherry and Clark Cherry matches Funder’s Lewis Cherry.

The U.S. Economy pushed ahead and surpassed expectations with a 2.9% increase in GDP during the third quarter according to The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). This is more than double the 1.4% increase in the second quarter and is inching towards the pre 2009 recession growth rate of 3%.

The recent advances in GDP was very broad based, with most industries advancing however a push from consumer spending and exports helped strengthen this quarters GDP. Overall the acceleration in growth is encouraging and economists are expecting continued growth over the next few quarters.

The National Association of Home Builder (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI) posted a reading of 57 in the third quarter for 2016, an increase of four points from the previous quarter.

The overall RMI is an average of two main sub-indices, one that tracks current market conditions and another tracking future market conditions. Along with the current indicators, future market conditions increased by 5 points from the previous quarter to 58.

An RMI above 50 indicated that more remodelers report market activity is higher compared to the previous quarter. “Remodelers nationwide are seeing increased demand for major and minor addition jobs and calls for bids, leading to an increase in both current and future market indicators,” says 2016 NAHB Remodelers chair Tim Shigley, CAPS, CGP, GMB, GMR, a remodeler from Wichita, Kan. “However, ongoing labor shortages continue to challenge their ability to meet the increased demand.”

Remodeling is currently being driven by the rising home values and tightening of for-sale inventories in many markets around the county.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, sales of new single-family houses in September 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000. This is a 3.1% increase from the August rate of 575,000 and 29.8% above the September 2015 estimate of 457,000.

For more information, please visit U.S. Census Bureau

STF is back at it again! We have introduced yet another new color in two distinct textures. White Ash is our newest white wood grain and Glacier White is the latest solid with a matte finish; both match a wide range of major TFL and HPL manufactures. White is a go-to design for many homeowners with 34% of new kitchens completed in white, these two new designs will not fail to please your customers.

White Ash

Glacier White

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the revised second quarter GDP growth of 2016. Real GDP grew at a 1.4% seasonally adjusted rate, a modest increase from the 1.1% previous estimate. The growth can be attributed to strength from consumer spending, bottoming out of oil prices and a rebound in equipment spending.

This growth in GDP seems to be accelerating following two quarters below 1% growth. Economists are predicting that the third quarter of 2016 will ramp up the GDP growth rate with forecasts as high as 3.1%.

With about two-thirds of total output coming from consumer spending, a 4.3% increase, with last quarter’s gain being the largest increase since 2014. It comes as no surprise that consumer confidence has also strengthened to its highest level in nine years. The Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index increased to a seasonally adjusted 104.1 in September, marginally higher than the estimated 99.1 that economist expected during September.

“Growth is a lot stronger than it looks” based on first-half GDP figures, said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates. “We’re still seeing a pretty strong jobs market, we expect wage growth to pick up, and gasoline prices are relatively low. That’s all a pretty good backdrop.”

Following the housing market bubble burst, 7 years later the housing market has in part recovered to pre-recession times. But what does that mean for the economy?

According to data released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) the economic impact of the housing has a substantial effect on the overall economy. For every 1,000 single-family homes built approximately 2.975 jobs are created and totals of $116 million in net business income. Looking deeper into the jobs created approximately half are in construction alone.

The impact of 2,000 apartments built result in 2 jobs created with about half of those in construction and manufacturing. This would bring a total of $46 million in net business income with $25 million in construction and $7 million in manufacturing.

For more information: NAHB

Kitchens are a gathering place in most homes and it comes to no surprise that kitchen and bath remodels are most common. According to Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (HJCHS), kitchen-related remodeling may exceed new construction next year, with estimates for home remodels and renovations as high as $321 billion by mid-2017. One of the driving forces behind the increase in renovations and remodeling has been the rebounding equity that homeowners have.

With more home-owners choosing to remodel, there has been a larger emphasis on features and design over cost. What are the design trends we are seeing today?

Cabinetry

Wood-based cabinets are still the most common, however there is a variation in the panel type of wood cabinets with 60% of home-owners having a wood finished cabinetry with a raised panel and 25% having a wood finish with a flat panel, 5% are laminate and 10% listed as other.

The most popular color is white with 34%, followed by wood (medium tone) at 20%, gray at 9%, wood (dark tone) at 7% and multi-colored at 6%. Although Zillow recently reported an increase in tuxedo design cabinetry using complimentary colors as an alternative to traditional cabinetry.

Counter Tops

Granite counter tops are overwhelmingly popular with 64% followed by laminate at 14%, engineered stone 9%, solid-surface 9% and other 4%. Of those with granite counter tops three colors choices stand out: 30% of respondents have multi-colored, 26% have white, 18% have black, and 26% reporting other.

Appliances

An overwhelming 79% of respondents prefer stainless steel appliances with only 6% black and 4% white.

Sources:
2016 Annual Builder Practices Report
Houzz
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

We’re slowly but surely catching our breath after participating at the best International Woodworking Fair in a decade.

What a whirlwind!

For four days – August 24-27 – the Georgia World Congress Center was a beehive of activity. The steady buzz created by the drone of machines cutting wood served as the backdrop for the more than 16,000 attendees who came to Atlanta searching for new products and ideas to improve their designs, production and bottom lines.

Synergy Thermal Foils entertained a steady stream of woodworkers who stopped by our booth in Hall B to view and ask questions about our family of rigid thermal foils (RTF). We were once again located across the aisle from Vac-U-Clamp, one of our strategic partners. Vac-U-Clamp’s who showcased our 3D laminates.

The buzz at our booth was the formal introduction of a new Match Program with our industry partners Formica, KML and Uniboard.  While we have always had RTF products to match selected TFL and HPL offerings from all of the industry’s major players, what makes this program launch special is that these RTF high-pressure laminate and edgebanding are all stocked in Florida and ready for immediate delivery throughout the country.

TFL Designer Matches

This is great news for our customers. Cabinet makers, for example, can value engineer an entire kitchen using matching TFL and edgebanding for boxes, HPL for counters, and Synergy RTF for doors and drawer fronts.
Development of our new stocking match program was driven by customer demand to more readily find matches of TFL and HPL with our RTF products. We were thrilled with how quickly our pilot program took off in Florida, leading us to a national launch that currently includes nine popular wood designs.

Laval, Quebec-based Uniboard’s newest additions to the program includes Barnwood, Silverwood and Smokewood TFL, all perfect matches with Synergy’s RTF products. These three oaks are among a dozen new designs featured in Uniboard’s 2016 TFL Collection. A fourth design match, Memento, was introduced by Uniboard last year.

It is very gratifying that Don Raymond, vice president of marketing and sales for Uniboard, refers to us as “an amazing partner” worthy of contributing matching RTF products with his company’s signature, upscale finishes.

KML of Tacoma, WA, now offers TFL for five of our Match Program RTFs:  Brown Pear, Grey Pear, Moderna Grigio, Riva and Zanno Wenge. KML is one of our oldest matching partners and we are extremely happy to have them on board with this new program.

This is only the beginning. Having nine wood designs with three great partners in Formica, KML and Uniboard reflect the high value and dynamic synergies that Synergy Thermal Foil aims to expand on in the years to come.

Click here to learn more about our matching TFL and HPL matching program.

STF is continuing the trend by adding yet another impeccable design: Aria. Going the extra Synergy mile, this new design is now stocked in two textures. Silk Teak has an wood tick finish and Aria TX has an deep emboss finish. The corresponding TFL is available from Arauco Prism (Flakeboard); Aria WF340. Be prepared to receive a standing ovation when using STF’s latest 3D laminate.

Silk Teak

Aria TX

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in September jumped six points to 65 from a revised August reading of 59. This marks the highest HMI level since October 2015 according to the National Association of Home Builders.

All three HMI components rose this month, with current sales conditions rising 6 points to 71 and sales expectations also climbing 5 points to 71. The third component measuring traffic of prospective buyers went up 4 points to 73.

Even with decrease in U.S. housing starts, builders in many markets are confident that the single-family housing market will continue the upward momentum to build throughout the remainder of the year and into 2017.

Derived from a monthly NAHB survey, the HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months. Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good rather than poor.

For more information: NAHB